Maple Canyon Anchor Maintenance Recap May 2nd - 6th, 2022
Recap from Andrew Brodhead, The SLCA’s Anchor Maintenance Coordinator
Maple Canyon is a true gem within the Utah climbing culture. Its breathtaking scenery, canyons, formations and easy access makes it a prime location for climbers of all abilities. Every Maple climber can tell you about their first experience at Maple, good or bad, and then dive deep into their progression of becoming addicted to climbing on cobbles. It is a special place for all climbers and us here at the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance.
In fall of 2020, the SLCA did its first full scale upgrade at the Pipe Dream with our anchor maintenance crew. This taught us a lot about rigging in the most technical of terrain and gave the Anchor Maintenance program the confidence to continue to improve our fall protection protocols to keep workers safe. April 2nd, 2022 was the beginning of our Maple Canyon anchor maintenance for this season. With the guidance of our observation form, personal experiences, Mountain Project comments and an anchors survey, we zoned in on 3 areas: Simpson Rock, School Room and Orangutang Wall.
Our main purpose at Simpson Rock was to assess and rebolt Tomacco and Sexy Flanders. The crew agreed that these routes needed an upgrade due to exposed bolt shafts and spinners. The routes were upgraded with Fixe Inox Stainless Steel Glue-in bolts.
On April 3rd, we switched gears and headed down to The School Room. This area is home to a lot of short and stout moderates like Big Kahuna (5.10b). Our initial concern was the amount of washer stacked anchors at such a popular zone. Washer stacked top anchors were once accepted, but as climbing progressed, they are now outdated and rarely done. As the team removed these washer stacked anchors, we began to notice the amount of rust. This guided the crew to do full replacements of some of the classic routes in the area. This area was also home to some outdated Kong and SMC hangers that are no longer used today, giving the crew more reason to replace some of these routes with stainless steel glue-in’s.
After wrapping up the School Room, we headed over to Orangutang Wall in the Left Fork. This could possibly be one of the most popular zones in the canyon for the grade. On any given weekend, you could be waiting in line for some of the long classics at this wall, including the 100’ Monkey Duodenum (5.9). A collection of anchors and lead bolts were replaced or maintained at this wall. Some of the routes that are within black water streaks were closely examined and bolts were replaced as needed.
In total, the Anchor Maintenance crew completed:
Total number of routes worked on: 22
Total bolts / anchors maintained: 41
Total bolts / anchors replaced: 121
Rock climbing is an inherently dangerous activity and we encourage anyone who participates to obtain the appropriate education and training in order to minimize accidents. We also encourage participants to consult resources including but not limited to guiding outfitters, SAR, Utah Avalanche Center, ranger stations, and weather reports. Nevertheless and although tragic, accidents can happen even when the participants have the proper training and have consulted authorities on conditions. Participants in outdoor climbing are assuming a risk, just as they do in skiing, mountain biking, kayaking, or other outdoor activities. Anchors once maintained by the SLCA are not guaranteed to be in the same state or condition as when they were maintained.